Uber Drivers Are Now Training AI for Extra Cash
▼ Summary
– Uber is launching an optional “digital tasks” program in the US, allowing drivers and couriers to earn extra money by helping companies train AI models.
– Participants can complete tasks like uploading videos, pictures, or documents through the Uber Driver app, with compensation based on time and complexity.
– The program provides a way for AI companies to gather real-life data from people, potentially avoiding copyright issues associated with scraping content from the internet.
– Uber will not disclose the names or business goals of the AI companies involved, and the privacy policy regarding data use and Uber’s cut is unclear.
– This initiative expands earning opportunities for users beyond driving, but task availability depends on company demand, making it an unreliable income source.
Uber is rolling out a new initiative in the United States that lets its drivers and couriers earn extra income by completing digital tasks designed to train artificial intelligence models. This optional program, accessible through the Uber Driver app, represents a significant expansion of the company’s gig-economy offerings beyond traditional ride-hailing and delivery services.
Participants who sign up can perform a variety of assignments, such as recording videos of themselves speaking in their native language, uploading photographs of common objects, or providing documents written in a foreign language. Each task comes with a payment that reflects both the time required and its complexity. Earnings from these activities are expected to appear in the user’s account balance within one day of completion.
The company has indicated that over time, it plans to introduce a wider variety of digital tasks, giving drivers more chances to supplement their income without needing to use their vehicles. However, availability of these tasks will depend entirely on demand from the technology companies that require the data, meaning this should not be viewed as a steady or guaranteed source of revenue.
This approach offers AI developers a potential solution to ongoing legal disputes over copyrighted training materials. Rather than scraping text, images, audio, and video from the public internet, a practice that has led to lawsuits from publishers, record labels, and artists, companies can now source original content directly from individuals. In effect, Uber drivers are becoming a distributed workforce for AI data collection, similar to existing low-wage data labeling operations in other parts of the world.
Still, some questions remain unanswered. Uber has not specified what percentage of the payment it will retain from each task, nor has it provided complete clarity around data privacy. The company states that it will not reveal the identity or specific objectives of the AI firms involved. Participants should be aware, however, that any content they submit could be sold, transferred, or stored indefinitely by these third-party companies.
(Source: ZDNET)
